A very honest and often comical view into the ins and outs (pun intended) of living and loving as a fiercely independent woman. If you spend any time around me, chances are you'll end up in the stories, so be warned. I change the names to protect the guilty, but I write with a candor that alarms some and charms others.

08 January 2006

Inadvertent Groupie

Today is my friend Pepe's birthday. Pepe is one of the most amazing, insane and magical people I know. Here he is working on his recently release album Pambrosia.

One of the things I love most about Pepe is that he's unpredictable. One of the last times we had plans to go to dinner, he called me and said he had a quick errand to run downtown first. "It'll take 15 minutes", he said. We were going to run said errand with my neighbor (his bandmate) Nadine, so he asked me to meet them at her place.

Pepe was in make-up and partial drag. Average day, really.

We piled into Nadine's car and parked near the Performing Arts Center. Before I knew it, we were going in a backstage entrance and Pepe hurriedly whispered "you're performing tonight!" as we were greeted by a guard. "Oh, see... there you are" Pepe said, pointing to a name on the list. I crossed off a random name and handed him the pen.

We made our way through a series of corridors and into the bowels of the building. He pointed me toward the women's dressing room and slipped into the men's. I still had no idea what was going on other than Pepe and the Bottle Blondes were apparently performing.

Pepe joined us a few minutes later, just one of the girls now in a skirt and heels. Again, a fairly common look for him. He led me upstairs to what turned out to be a side entrance to one of the stages and shooed me into a seat. "I'll just be 15 minutes" he said as the door closed behind him.

About 15 minutes later he, the Bottle Blondes, and a few other performers took the stage and did "Big Spender". I slipped backstage again after their number. He hurriedly changed and washed off his make-up and ushered me out onto the street.

"Don't you have to do a curtain call or anything?" I asked.

He shrugged "Eh... they can do it without me."

And so we headed off to dinner having completed our "errand". I later found out it was the "Night of a 100 Stars 2005" which I guess is some kind of a big deal. And that is classic Pepe.

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Who is that girl?

I have a penchant for getting myself into odd scrapes and misadventures, and a knack for storytelling. Put the two together and you get "The Misadventures of a Coat Check Girl", the blog I've maintained since late 2005.